MakerBot Digitizer Shipping to Customers This Week!Updates to MakerWare Offer New Features Plus Support Flexible and Dissolvable Filaments

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- It's an exciting time at MakerBot. The global leader in desktop 3D printing has commenced shipping its long anticipated MakerBot® Digitizer™ Desktop 3D Scanner to customers this week! Customers who were the first to pre-order the MakerBot Digitizer are expected to receive their MakerBot Digitizer and will be among the first to have a fast and easy way to create 3D models. The MakerBot Digitizer quickly turns the things in your world into 3D models you can modify, improve, share and 3D print. The MakerBot Digitizer will also be available for purchase at the MakerBot Retail Store in New York City, located at 298 Mulberry Street, New York, N.Y., beginning October 1.

On the filament materials side, MakerBot® Flexible Filament is also available for purchase. MakerBot Flexible Filament was first introduced as the material used in the 3D printed Verlan Dress, printed on MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printers and designed in the New Skins Computational Design Workshop led by designer Francis Bitonti at the Pratt Institute's Digital Arts and Humanities Research Center (DAHRC). MakerBot Flexible Filament is a polyester-based material that is more flexible than MakerBot® PLA and MakerBot® ABS Filaments. It also has a low melting temperature and can be heated and reshaped, creating new opportunities to stretch the limits of 3D printing. MakerBot Flexible Filament currently retails for$130 (USD) for a 1 kg spool and is available online atmakerbot.com and in the MakerBot Store in New York City, where the Verlan Dress is currently on display in the store window.

MakerBot® Dissolvable Filament is also being introduced. MakerBot Dissolvable Filament provides dissolvable solid infill for detailed objects, objects with overhangs, and objects with internal moving parts. MakerBot Dissolvable Filament is specifically for the MakerBot® Replicator® 2X Experimental 3D Printer and for those printing with ABS. The amazing feature of MakerBot Dissolvable Filament is that when it is immersed overnight in Limonene, a common colorless, citrus-scented solvent available online and in grocery/home stores, the solid infill dissolves and leaves behind a great 3D print made from MakerBot ABS Filament. MakerBot Dissolvable Filament is currently priced at $65 (USD) for a 1 kg spool and is available immediately for order online at makerbot.com and available at the MakerBot Store in New York.

MakerBot is also releasing a MakerBot®MakerWare™ 2.3.0 update, which includes powerful features including a new Print Preview setting, anAdvanced Dual Extrusion algorithm for the MakerBot Replicator 2X, and multimaterial support. The MakerWare 2.3.0 Print Preview feature is aimed to enable a layer-by-layer preview of how a 3D design will print, including time and material use estimates. Print Preview also shows how multiple colors will look on dual extrusion prints, and tracks extruder tool paths to determine where support will be applied and how infill patterns will look.

MakerBot Replicator 2X users will rejoice with the Advanced Dual Extrusion update in MakerBot MakerWare 2.3.0. MakerBot has reimagined the way that MakerWare handles dual extrusion printing and for those printing on the MakerBot Replicator 2X, they have the option to print with color-matched rafts and supports, creating cleaner, more consistent surfaces on dual extrusion prints. This new MakerWare 2.3.0 update also introducesExtrusion Guards, ultrathin barriers that wrap around the perimeter of dual extrusion prints. These guards clean excess filament off of the extruder nozzles, reducing nozzle clogging and improving performance.

Multimaterial Support is also a new feature in MakerBot MakerWare 2.3.0, providing profiles for use with MakerBot Flexible Filament for the MakerBot Replicator 2, and MakerBot Dissolvable Filament support for the MakerBot Replicator 2X.
MakerWare updates are free to download from makerbot.com/makerware.

"The MakerWare 2.3.0 update is a significant update," noted Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. "Not only does it offer new features such as print preview, but it provides a new and improved MakerBot Slicer, a helpful ‘lay flat' option, sizing preferences to know if your print will fit the build plate, custom profiles for MakerBot Flexible Filament and MakerBot Dissolvable Filament, and even a print time estimation. These are really helpful features that will make 3D printing even easier and more enjoyable for the user."